The present invention relates to an instrument panel for automotive vehicles which can be fastened to a rigid beam, box girder, or the like, of the body of the vehicle that extends over the width of the vehicle below the windshield.
Vehicle dashboards include an instrument panel. They have a horizontal top part, extending rearwardly from the windshield, and have a generally vertical downwardly extending part. Some molded instrument panels are thin, and of generally L-shaped transverse cross-section.
Federal Republic of Germany Patent No. 11 30 775 describes a dashboard with an instrument panel. To the rear of the panel, a flat structural part is fastened. Together with the instrument panel, that structural part forms a hollow space which serves as an air conduit that is in communication with windshield defroster nozzles that are developed in the instrument panel. In this dashboard, the flat structural part is an open profile of elastic material attached to, but not integrated in the body of the dashboard, below the front region of the instrument panel. The structural part is formed of resilient material. The windshield defroster nozzles are arranged in that structural part. After being assembled with the instrument panel, the structural part forms an air duct which stiffens the preassemblable subassembly. This dashboard therefore consists of an instrument panel together with a profiled structural part. These parts must be manufactured individually in separate manufacturing devices and be combined after their manufacture, using suitable sassembly devices.